Burning Flower
by ewaa
Summary: I might not be the nicest of them all, but what must be done - must be done. Death is a part of this world. "So I'm Ino Yamanaka? Eh.. I wonder how will my parents name my future younger sister then.." (OC/before Naruto's generation)
1. Prologue?

**0.**

* * *

To be honest, there is not much I could tell you.

Was my life flashy? Exciting? At least interesting? Hell no. Far from it.

I was a student, like you all. I also had no motivation in life. Most people summed me up in one sentence: "Talented but lazy. Wasted potential." and I agree with them.

But the truth was, that the world I lived in couldn't give me a reason to fight.

Family? Yes, I loved mine.

Friends? They come and go, especially in XXI century.

Money? The thing that gives you a possibility to live and be happy for some time? Yeah, pretty cool.

But all of these staff were a part of a system, that lied to you telling you that you could be something more. That you could achieve something great and become someone rememberable. For what though? No idea.

People didn't live their life. They didn't live for the most of the time. They worked like robots and forgot about emotions to the point where conversation with other human beings became an unwanted thing.

Did I hate that life? No.

Was I happy? No.

Did I care? No.

You can imagine how glad I was when the realization, that I'm a baby, hit me. Same shit all over again - what a joy, am I right?

As a 6 month old brat, I was able to stay awake for more than 3hours. That's an achievement, trust me. At that age, I also tried to figure out the localization and the time in which my new life was going to take place.

The house was mostly made of wood. There was also no sigh of modern technology, what threw me off. Books and papers laid almost everywhere and there was not many toys in, what I assumed to be, my room. Actually, I had maybe two things I could possibly play with.

'Maybe my family is poor.' I thought a couple of times, 'or we live in the countryside.'

One day, though, when my father came back from work, I've noticed a strange thing on his forehead and that was a really important clue for a slow minded me.

"Aguh buuha" I tried speaking while pointing at my father's face. He smiled kindly at me and ruffled my nonexistent hair.

"What's up little one?" He picked me up from the table on which I was lying, "Are you that happy to see your handsome dad, my cute sunshine?"

When our eyes where on the same level, I could finally confirm that he indeed wore a forehead protector. One with a leaf on it. The same which Konoha shinobies wore. Yep, that one.

I looked at the man in front of me. At his smiling face. At his blond hair and blue eyes. He was too young to be a father. He could be not older than 19. I've noticed how tired he was, even though he made a great deal to mask that.

I noticed his posture. How strong he looked. How the aura around his body was different than the one which my mother had.

"Ahjiu an uhaa baaa" I tried again, this time touching Konoha symbol.

"Uh?" he looked not sure, "You want to know what's that?" and while saying that he tilted his head to the left side. I just nodded starting to get impatience.

"That's a shinobi symbol sweetie. When you grow up, mommy and daddy will tell you everything about that, right Hikari?" and with that he kissed my cheek and put me back on the table.

The woman who was standing behind it laughed softly and kissed the top of my head. "Maybe she will want to be a civilian. Stop putting strange ideas into her head, Inoichi."

"I can see that in her eyes honey. She is a fighter, right sunshine?" he tickled my stomach. As I tried to kick his hand away while giggling, the smile on his face only grew. "See?"

"Okay, okay. We will see." she finally gave up. After a minute of looking at me and my father, she sighed "You know, I need more help in the flower shop. Especially in times like this. We get more and more funeral orders every day."

The atmosphere in the room changed to a serious one.

"I know, Hikari. Don't worry, the war will stop sooner than you think. Sakumo-san is doing a great job out there. Not to mention the new made Sannins." He came closer to my mother and hugged her, "I'm leaving tomorrow, but only for three weeks. Father needs as much help as he can get. I'll ask my cousin to come and help you. I'm sure she will be more than glad to."

"Yeah, okay. Just watch over yourself there." She bubbled to his shirt.

"I always do."

They stayed still in that position, until they heard my yawn. Mother looked at me, at my red face from tiredness and decided to take me to bed.

"You should go and sleep, too. You will need that." she called while escaping the room.

He smirked at her, "Oh? So now you're running away from me with our cute Ino? I'm not even allowed to put her to bed?"

"Aghuuuuua!" I yelled what made him grin.

"See? She wants me. I guess, I'm her favorite one, eh? But don't be jealous Hikari-chan. I bet she likes you a bit." he teasted while reaching for me.

Mother smirked back at him and swang me to the left away from my father's hands, "Sorry Inoichi-kun, but that yell means that she will poop in a second."

Dad's face turned greenish as mom continued, " But of course you can have her, If you wish to so badly."

"Aghuuuuua! Aaaa!" as I yelled again, father was long gone from the room.

Mom laughed and grabbed playfully one of my feet, "Good job little monster, good job. Now come, lets give you some food. I heard that you're hungry." She hummed.

"Aghuuuu!" I smiled back at her.

This was one of most educative days I had in my new life. _Weren't you surprised, terrified or at least scared at the news of being reborn in Narutoverse_ , you may ask. Nah. Why? Because at least this time, If I wanted to die I could do it without any church telling me that it's a sin.

* * *

 **0.**

* * *

Days passed. Years went by. War ended much later than anyone expected. But when the peace welcomed the village everyone celebrated. No matter the age, the status. Everyone was glad to see shinobies coming back to the village after all these time.

Mother was the happiest of them all. She put me on her shoulders and run through the crowd of people just to see her husband. I can't say that I wasn't equally excited. It was over two months since I've last seen my father. Don't get me wrong, I loved my mom. But dad was just.. dad. He tried to get back home as often as he could, but it wasn't that easy for most of the time. It was war in the end. People were needed at the fronts.

When a blond head came to our view, both of us yelled, "Dad!" "Inoichi!"

It took him 3 seconds to appear before us with tears in the corners of his eyes.

"My girls, my cute girls. We made it." He repeated.

Mother grabbed him so tightly that someone could think that she actually had some ninja training. But father didn't seem to mind that. The joy, the happiness. It was overwhelming.

"Okay, show yourself." He said to me while pulling out from the group hug.

I jumped down from mother's shoulders and stood straight with a huge grin. For 3 year old kid, I was pretty tall. My dark blond hair was tied in a hight ponytail similar to father's. I wore black clothes to my parents dislike, but they got used to it.

"Aw, you're growing too fast sunshine." He kneeled down to my level, "Whenever I look away from you, you grow 2cm taller. It's not fair."

"Daaaaaad~" I played along pretending to be shy about that, what only made him hug me.

"That's it. I'm carrying you home. Too many people is in here. What if some boy falls in love with you?"

I tried to protest but when I opened my mouth to speak, I was interrupted by father "Exactly. Let's go home. Too much, is too much." And with that we were on our way out from the crowd.

* * *

 **0.**

* * *

Nights were always the hardest for me.

When I stayed alone in my room, it was almost too easy to get a headache from analyzing my situation.

At first, I thought, that I took Ino's place in this world, what irritated me a little. I wasn't the one for Ino-Shika-Cho. I wasn't the one for any kind of team work to be honest. "If you want to have something done well, do it yourself" as my grandma always said.

But in this world - in this village?

Without putting trust in other people, I wouldn't last long, and for now, I wanted to play "get a new life" game a little longer.

Plot was no longer existing anyways. My presence in this universe already have ruined everything. One person can change everything, even without trying.

Chakra seemed cool enough to encourage me to try my best. And if I failed, I would just die - not a big deal.

"So I'm Ino Yamanaka? Eh.. I wonder how will my parents name my future younger sister then.."


	2. Academy?

I'll try not to bore you too much with my second life, but trust me – its more interesting than the previous one.

So, my life as a kiddo was probably the same as anyone else's who had a lovely, happy family. My father – the most charming person ever, and my mother – the most sneaky woman in the village, made my life colorful.

Inoichi wasn't that often seen in the manga, so my knowledge about him was pretty much nonexistence. Expect the fact that he was Ino's father and the clan head of Yamanaka clan.

Okay, and a head of Konoha Intelligence Division.

Oh. And that flower shop.

Actually, when I think about that, I had some knowledge. But it was more of a future knowledge. For now, my dad was just a teenager. Even though that in the light of shinobi law he was seen as an adult, his actions showed his teenage-immature side pretty often.

But he was just lovable.

My mother was less immature, though. I assumed that it's because she was a woman which gave birth at a really young age, so obviously she had to grow up faster. She also took care of me 24/7. So, she couldn't run away from baby responsibilities like my father. Despite that, she was cool. Sometimes creepy, but still cool.

I'm sure of one thing, though.

I've grown to love them both.

At the age of 4, I signed myself to the academy. I was on a "walk" around the village that day. By the "walk", I mean running away from the compound and trying to see some main characters to know what exactly will happen sooner or later. A really nice walk.

I've never been a lucky person, and that didn't change in this life. No matter how long have I been walking, I couldn't find anyone.

I even got lost like two times and ended up in the forest or in some alley.

Konoha was safe enough for little brats like me to just go around. My mother thought so too, that's why she waited for at least 3hours before she went out looking for me.

I bet father asked some of his friends to watch over a small blond head randomly showing up in random places, too, because he never tried to find me himself nor stop me from running away in the first place. I bet he secretly enjoyed watching me trying to go out unnoticed. That little stalker.

But anyways. Konoha was indeed a beautiful village. There was a shit ton of trees, so no wonder that Madara called it a village hidden in leaves.

I walked cross many streets, shops, compounds. I even "accidently" ended up in someone's house. But I wasn't lucky enough to recognize any characters.

When I passed next to the academy, the idea hit me like a train.

I walked inside. The place was huge. On every wall you had pictures or paintings of important people. One of them was of course Tobirama Senju - the inventor of this whole school system.

Bored and tried from walking around this place without any soul in the view, I decided to sneak into one of the classes. I was lucky for the first time in ages, because the class was a total mess, so I could be unnoticed. Apparently, the teacher left for some papers, so the kids took an opportunity to fight with each other. Some girls screamed, some fangirled, some did both. Boys mostly threw punches and yelled at each other. Total mess.

I decided to sit at the very back of the classroom next to a boy who somehow was able to sleep through the whole happening.

As the teacher walked into the class, the silence welcomed my ears.

Everyone got back to their sits and I prayed that I didn't sat on someone's place. Again, surprisely, luck was with me.

'It's going too nicely..' I thought, but after teacher's lecture about "proper behavior", I decided not to worry.

"Who would like to give me a definition of "chakra"? the teacher asked he class while standing up from his chair.

No voluntaries.

"How about you, Akani Mariu?" he nodded at one of the boys who were in the fight. Brown headed child only turned red. He didn't even try to come up with some definition. He gave up as soon as he heard his name.

"Anyone else?" the teacher continued without a comment, "Why are you even here? Open your damn books and try to find the answer at least" he said under his nose.

One boy stood up. He was smaller than the rest. But he stood proudly with an Uchiha fan on his back.

'Oh? Uchiha?' I got interested.

"Chakra is an energy that lives inside every live form." The boy finally said.

"Good, Shisui. You may sit." The teacher ordered, "What do we use charkra for?" and at that question everyone stood up.

"Sit down. I'll chose someone" he hummed satisfied. He looked around the class and his eyes rested on the sleeping boy next to me. When he was about to ask him for the answer, his gaze met mine.

'Shit.'

"Oh? And who are you?" he asked with one eyebrow raised.

As a good child, which I was, I decided to pretend that he was not talking to me. But all of sudden the kiddo next to me turned his head to my direction and whispered still in his lying position "He is talking to you."

'Shitfuck.'

"Emm, I'm Yamanaka Ino" I answered while getting up.

"Are you a new student I didn't hear about?" he was now walking closer to my desk.

"Yes" I said without thinking what made him stop.

"Hm, okay. So what's the answer, Ino?"

As I looked at his smug face I was getting more and more irritated and at the same time anxious, "Shinobies use chakra to be able to perform ninjutsu. Chakra is also a needed aspect in tree walking, water walking, boosting your speed or.. any other ninja things?" I finished unsurely. I wasn't a student for a long time now. This moment was really awkward for me.

"Good." He approved, " What "ninja things" though?" he directed this question at me again.

I blinked, "For example funjutsu or genjutsu. Some even use chakra in taijutsu. In all, you can use chakra in many different ways." I started to think about it, "Chakra control is also very important. Everyone has limited amount of chakra. If you have a good control over you chakra, you are able to not waste it and thanks to that you can for example perform more jutsus." At this point I was just thinking out loud "People with smaller chakra reserves most of the time have a better control over it. But it's better to have a bad control over you chakra because you have huge reserves and just train yourself to control it better, than having good control over small reserves of chakra. Though at the same time, Bijus are made of chakra and it's impossible to control them, so maybe big reserves aren't that good of an idea because – "

"That's enough, thank you. Sit down" the teacher dismissed me.

The class continued. Was it boring? Yes. But it was less boring, than sitting in the house with mother and doing basically nothing because she was watching me like a hawk.

The bell rang, and everyone was dismissed.

I followed the kids outside. Actually, I was following one kid, but he disappeared as soon as we were out. 'Shisui fucking Uchiha. I was a little younger than fucking prodigy of Uchiha clan.' I thought while playing with the rocks under one of the biggest trees in the playground. 'At least I know that I don't have to worry about Kurama for a long time.'

Then, I heard a noise. I looked around but I haven't noticed anything off. And when I was about to relax once again, a hand grabbed me and pulled me into some bushes.

"Shhh, shhh!" the capturer tried to calm me while holding his hand on my mouth.

I've noticed that his hands were small, actually he was my height, so I stopped being worried. I turned to face him, and I saw goddamn Shisui. 'Luck is still with me?'

"Sorry.. fangirls.. you know." He said while letting me go

"You didn't have to drag me into damn bushes to hide from them." I answered irritated

He sat in front of me with a grin, "Yeah, I know. But I wanted to introduce myself." He gave me his hand, "I'm the great, one and only Uchicha Shisui!" his smile was so bright that I almost went blind, "What about you, Yamanaka-san?"

"Why do you bother asking, if you know my name?"

"It's a polite thing to do. I know your name, but do you know it yourself?" he teased. He. Teased. Me. A stranger.

"You have some guts, little boy." I said while puffing my cheeks, "Call me Ino."

"Ino-chan~"

"Just Ino"

"Ino-sama~"

I glared at him. What was his problem.

"Shisui-chan~" I called sarcastically, but to my surprise the boy only smiled.

"We will get along quite well, don't you think?"

"No."

"Oh come on. How old are you anyways? It's the first time I'm seeing you."

I bit on my cheek, "I'm 4"

"You're tall for your age." He said a little surprised, "I'm older so you have to show me some respect!" he suddenly yelled happily.

"How old are you?" I was curious.

"Eh? Oh, 6.. soon 7."

"Shisui- senpai?" I giggled mockingly.

"Just Shisui will be alright" he winked at me.

I wanted to say something back, but at that moment I sensed something familiar. It was a demon looking for its pray. I looked panicked from the bushes only to see my mother with the teacher next to her.

"Hello? ... I'll be going then.." the second part was whispered as Shisui made his escape.

"Hi mom. You've found me. Heh." I said while standing up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked not really wanting an answer, "You're still not a student."

"Well.." I wanted to come up with some excuse but the teacher interrupted me.

"If I may say something, Hikaru." That was a moment I discovered that they knew each other, to my displeasure, " She is quite clever. You wouldn't be able to find her here if it wasn't for me. I think it would be a good idea if you enrolled her for your own sake. She will be safe here."

"No, she is still a child. The war is over. She can join in two years." My mother protested.

As two adults were having a "conversation" that was kinda similar to overpolite argument, I sneaked out.

I've to thank that teacher for one thing. Or two. Firstly, he stopped my mother from yelling at me. Secondly, he gave me a great idea.

I walked to one of the academy rooms, "Excuse me?" I started.

"Yes?" a lady in the chair, behind one of the longest tables I've ever seen, answered kindly.

"Where can I sign in to the academy?" I smiled at the end.

"Oh? And where are your parents?"

I looked down trying to think of something, when a stupid lie came to my mind, "They've been on the mission for almost a year now." I tried my best sad look, "But the clan said they would pay for everything." I added with hope in my voice.

"Oh, I'm sure your parents will be back soon from the mission, don't worry. But sadly without an adult I can't give you needed papers." She said as if she was really upset about that, "Maybe come back tomorrow with someone? I'll have everything prepared."

"Ah.. no, nevermind, thank you." I said softly while turning around to leave. But instead of walking without a problem from the room, I hit someone's legs.

I looked up to meet for the second time this day the gaze of that random teacher.

"I'll sign the papers for her parents." he stated while walking to the woman.

"Ah, Yoshi- sensei?" the lady asked surprised, "But it has to be a family member, not just a clan member."

That news surprised me. - 'He is a Yamanaka?' - But not as much as the next one.

"I'm her uncle, Yuko-san. I'm sure that what we're about to do is not a crime. Can you please give us those papers."

And that's how, I've become an academy student and discover new yet old family member.

'Funny, how luck is with me'


End file.
